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Old 05-04-2018, 04:08 AM   #291
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by Myrion View Post
Also "Cabal" not "Kabbalah". :)
The varrient spellings starting with "k," "C," or "Q," are used to represent seperate things.
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Old 05-11-2018, 10:57 AM   #292
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

This is a simple idea. A long settled planet isolated from the Earth, the home world is assumed to be either dead or blasted into the stone age, is struggling to build their economies and infrastructure. Low populations and endemic warfare ( which keeps the populations low) being the main issues.

Two large continents dominate the Northern Hemisphere, one is roughly the size of Asia and the other is nearly the size of Africa. The two continents are separated by a long narrow strait which is rarely more than one hundred fifty miles wide and never less than ninety-five miles wide. Isolated in the Southern Oceans is a continent somewhat larger than Australia with a nearby island about as large as Greenland and two island chains with around half again is much territory as New Zealand, each.

Several groups went to each hemisphere. I'll use GURPS: Alpha Centauri as a shorthand in describing the groups. Groups equivalent to the U.N. Peacekeepers,The University,and Gaia's Stepdaughters went to the Southern Continent which they named Vivensa. Groups equivalent to the Human Hive, the militarists, the oligarchic capitalists, and several flavors of the Believers, Orthodox Christian, Islamic, Hindu, and Fundamentalist Christian, go to the Northern lands. These folks agreed on little or nothing.

The northern lands all have centers of study which retain the TL10^ science and technology that brought them to this world. However, because of the constant warfare and the low population caused by said warfare and the diseases of poverty, the functional tech level most of the people live at is generally TL4 or 5. Towns, and even their main cities are simply large towns, are normally late TL5 or early TL6. Although remnant technology is still around and occasional pieces of newly made high tech are around but very limited. Literacy is low, rarely more than 15%, and technical education is rarer still.

The warring governments of the Northern lands all assumed that Vivensa was in the same boat. That changed recently.

A diplomat with the Oligarchic Capitalists ( Hereafter The Commercial League) visited the Boreal Islands, the northernmost territory of Vivensa. The Boreal Islands are much like Hawaii except they have about 250% of the landmass. The diplomat from the Commercial League noticed that a large number of ships sailed south to Vivensa regularly, he decided to send an agent south to see why Vivensa could afford so many ships. The report that the diplomat got back stunned him.

The agent reported a large port city (and not a big town, a large city) with widespread literacy and public libraries that used computers! The technology, outside of the hospitals, libraries, and public institutions, didn't seem that far advanced. However far more people had access to the technologies available. The agent rode a railroad, electrified, to another port city. He saw tractors on farms, flying machines, and hydroelectric dams. Vivensa was clearly the most advanced and richest nation on the planet. If they kept growing like this, they'd soon either conquer the rest of the planet, or treat them like anthropological specimens.

The Commercial League is now trying to build an alliance to conquer Vivensa. The PCs are agents and diplomats working to get the warring factions to stop fighting each other, invest vast sums into navies capable of crossing oceans, and then to join together with the hated foes to conquer a group of people they know nothing about. All while leaving themselves vulnerable to the attacks of anyone who isn't joining in on the plans of the Commercial League.

Notes: Fossil fuels are very rare on this world. Electrical generation is either by windpower or hydropower. Biomass fuels exist, the airplane the agent saw would have used these. Such fuels are expensive. Sailing ships are mainly that, some do have back-up motors, but rarely use them. The motors are only for emergencies.

Vivensa's climate is cooler and rainier than Australia's and the soil is far richer. Thus on the main continent alone, Vivensa could easily grow to a population equal to the early twenty-first century America.
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Old 05-11-2018, 12:52 PM   #293
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

So, the Powers That Be in the North are going to attack a region that has better localized infrastructure, presumably faster transmission of info, and the ability to mass-produce armored vehicles (they have tractors, so can produce tanks), and has a larger population that would have the home field advantage, plus air superiority?

Well, RL warmongers have made similar mistakes..... Napoleon, meet Russia.
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Old 05-11-2018, 01:04 PM   #294
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

The incentive for a member of the northern "alliance" to betray its hereditary enemies and cut a sweet deal with the southern continent is insurmountable. If I had a PC in that setting, that would be my move.
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Old 05-11-2018, 02:01 PM   #295
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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So, the Powers That Be in the North are going to attack a region that has better localized infrastructure, presumably faster transmission of info, and the ability to mass-produce armored vehicles (they have tractors, so can produce tanks), and has a larger population that would have the home field advantage, plus air superiority?

Well, RL warmongers have made similar mistakes..... Napoleon, meet Russia.
I never said they were wise. It is more about intrigue and alliance building among sworn enemies.

By the way, both the Northerners and Vivensa have radios. In the northern lands they are few and far between. In Vivensa the set up is more like the 1930's. Regular broadcasts, entertainments, news, ect...
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Old 05-11-2018, 02:06 PM   #296
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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The incentive for a member of the northern "alliance" to betray its hereditary enemies and cut a sweet deal with the southern continent is insurmountable. If I had a PC in that setting, that would be my move.
And a shrewd move too.

Note: although I built Vivenza (a name I got from Melville) with two of the more democratic Alpha Centauri factions, the nature of thier government is up to you. In my mind, Vivenza is democratic and socialist. You can have it be whatever brings the right style to your game.
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Old 05-12-2018, 11:38 AM   #297
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

I've used this idea before but this is changed to be a gaming setting rather than a cultural question.

In 2030 a young medical researcher discovers that a particular retrovirus was always present when children are born with certain types of brain centered disorders. As the AIDS vaccine, which came out in 2026, showed how to create a cheap, safe, effective, vaccine against retroviruses, the researcher (Haruto MacDonald) made a vaccine. Haruto MacDonald's vaccine was soon shown to be safe and effective. Due to the politics of the early 2030s, the vaccine was soon being given to all American school children.

Unknown to all, the retrovirus in question had been around a long time. Humanity had evolved redundant brain functions to survive the damage caused by the retrovirus. Individuals like Da Vinci or Hildegard Von Bingen were simply less injured/warped by the retrovirus. Thus the average child, whose mother and father were vaccinated against the retroviruses in question, had a GURPS IQ of 16 as we as several mental advantages, plus simply better health and higher stats.

The main drama in this setting is the effects of a cohort of brilliant young people entering settings that were never designed for them. Most schools aren't designed for a whole classroom full of super brainy kids. Having a sudden influx of IQ 16 young people in the job market would cause chaos too. Some cultures would fight to limit the vaccine to the children of the rich. I assume many cultures might break out in intergenerational warfare.

Added fun, I notice very smart people, especially those with less education, always seem to be attracted to the political extremes. By the 2060s, in this setting, the center could be long gone.
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Old 05-15-2018, 11:01 AM   #298
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

Try this idea. A group of aliens arrives on Earth a few years from now. They aren't invaders but xenological researchers interested in humanity. The aliens sincerely believe that humanity is descended from the survivors of one of their interstellar colonies.

The claim, in most realities at least is wrong, but sincerely held.

The main things here are A) the overturning of human beliefs. Face it, large numbers of people would believe what the aliens said and still larger numbers would find it blasphemous. And B) humanity managing it first contacts with galactic civilization. Something made harder by alien groupies and wannabes on one hand and religious riots on the other.
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Old 05-15-2018, 01:52 PM   #299
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

It might make more "sense" if it's a religious belief. As in humans are reincarnated aliens. That would sidestep the biological impossibilities of being literal descendants.
It would be interesting if we just happen to be psychologically similar to one of the alien species. Only they and we have music or laughter, for example.
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Old 05-15-2018, 02:49 PM   #300
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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It might make more "sense" if it's a religious belief. As in humans are reincarnated aliens. That would sidestep the biological impossibilities of being literal descendants.
It would be interesting if we just happen to be psychologically similar to one of the alien species. Only they and we have music or laughter, for example.
I forgot to add in that because of a weird convergent evolution (manipulated by a precursor species for their own reasons) we and they are genetically the same species. I throw in the precursors as a fig leaf of reality. Being half asleep when I wrote the piece causes many flaws.

Still, the idea of humans as reincarnated aliens, or at least held to be so by an alien faith, works. I remember a Sci Fi novel where the dominant alien overlords held that unworthy members of their species were reincarnated as humans.
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